Easy Rider

Posted On 06 Oct 2015 / 0 Comment

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After building bikes for over ten year Rich Knapp decided to do something about it. He opened his own shop. Knapp is the owner of Apocalyptic Bike Works located at 8701 Dayton Pike in Soddy Daisy opened their doors to the public in August of 2014.

Knapp has loved motorcycle riding his whole life and is able to turn that into a formidable business. “I grew up on dirt bikes,” he says. “It just grew from there.”

Traveling to his shop is actually a relaxing journey to the north end of Soddy Daisy.

While some might move to a more heavily traveled area, Knapp chose his location for many reasons. It’s close to my house,” he says. “It’s not really highly populated, which keeps us grounded better. The avid cyclist and custom bike builder says he can service bikes faster without worrying about being slammed too bad. “And everybody knows everybody around here pretty much,” he adds.

At his shop Knapp does all sorts of work from the mundane changing oil and flat tires to ground up builds, bobbers (a custom motorcycle that has its front fender removed), choppers, Big Wheel Baggers to custom paint, welding and fabricating.

Knapp says the most unique customization he does come from ground up where he actually gets to stretch and modify as well as come up with his own designs for the motorcycle. When coming up with a concept he keeps the owner in the loop and allows input. “They sort of come up with certain angles and concepts that they like and we try to incorporate it with some of ours,” he says. “We meet in the middle.”

Part of customization includes specially designed themes. Yeah, actually we got finished with a bike right before Sturgis,” Knapp says. Sturgis is located in South Dakota and is home of one of the more popular bike rallies in August. It was Boondock Saints themed bike. “We’ve built several bikes with them on them,” he adds. “Clients want certain things on their motorcycle.”

Despite the growing popularity the past couple of years of sport bikes Knapp says he doesn’t get many in his shop. “I don’t see a whole lot of sport bikes,” he says. He tends to see more people with Harleys and V-Twins. “They tend to stay in their little group and sport bikes stay in their little group, but I see a couple every once in a while,” he says. “Everybody rides what they feel comfortable riding and what they enjoy riding. I say go for it.”

While there is no particular bike he dreads seeing come in his shop, the only time Knapp cringes is when a highly neglected bike comes in for repair. “Some people think it’s just a quick fix,” he says. “They basically want to put caulk or a band-aid versus fixing it properly.”

The most popular bike seen is the Harley-Davidson. “Because they’re so popular,” Knapp says. “It’s not that they break down much, they’re a very popular bike and a lot of people ride them.”

Despite being a smaller shop Knapp can do anything the bigger shops can for folks and their motorcycles. “We’re just a small shop. We’re not a big company,” he says. “We turn around and give people what they want, service their stuff, get them in and out. We don’t have a real long wait time for them and we do just as good work as the big guys do.”